Rizq is (Sustanance) From Allaah (SWT)

As Muslims, we believe that our relationship with our Provider determines the extent of toil, energy and time required to earn what has been decreed for us. Your relationship with your Provider also determines the level of barakah (blessings) that you will enjoy in your earnings. When Maryam Radhi-Allahu anhu devoted her entire existence to developing her relationship with her Creator and Provider, Allah provided her with 'out of season' sustenance. Out of season sustenance means getting your rizq beyond the usual manner and outside the standard time. “Whenever Zakariyya Alayhis Salaam entered her chamber, he found her supplied with sustenance. He asked: O Maryam! Where does this sustenance come from? She replied: “It is from Allah – certainly Allah provides sustenance to whom He wills without any measure” (3:37) Conversely, Allah constricts our rizq when we incur His displeasure through the commission of sin. Nabi r said: “A person is deprived of sustenance on account of sin that he commits.” (Ibn Majah) As Muslims we accept that Allah is the provider of Rizq and that we are merely tasked with its acquisition. The ease or difficulty with which we acquire our rizq and the extent of benefit we can draw from it very much depends on our relationship with our Provider and Creator. “If a person's main concern is the Hereafter, Allah places richness in his heart, makes his affairs manageable for him and the world will come to him in a subdued state. If a person's main concern is this world, Allah will linger poverty before his eyes and will make his affairs beyond his control, yet he will not get of this world save what has been decreed for him.”(Tirmidhi) What is your relationship with your Provider? Do you only live for this world or are your endeavours centred around the hereafter? How does your daily efforts in acquiring your rizq impact on your connection with Allah and on your character? We need not only to 'earn' rizq through continuous toil; we also need to supplement our efforts by improving our relationship with Allah. This we can do through: Tawbah (Repentance): 'Ask forgiveness from your Lord, verily, He is Oft-forgiving; He will send rain to you in abundance, and give you increase in wealth and children, and bestow on you gardens and bestow on you rivers.}(71: 10-12) • Taqwa (Allah consciousness): “And whosoever fears Allah and keeps his duty to Him, He will make a way for him to get out (from every difficulty). And He will provide him from (sources) he never could imagine.” (65:2-3) • Silat-ur-rahem (Fostering family ties) "Whoever is pleased that he be granted more wealth and that his lease (span) of life be prolonged, should keep good relations with his kin." (Bukhari & Muslim) • Sadaqah (Charity): “And whatsoever you spend of anything (in Allah's cause), He will replace it. And He is the best of providers.” (34:39) “'Show mercy to those on earth so that He who is in heaven will have mercy on you.' (Tirmidhi) • Ibaadah (Worship): “Allah says, 'O son of Adam! Take time out to constantly worship me, I will fill your heart with richness and remove your poverty. And if you do not do so. I will make your hands filled with occupation, and will not remove your poverty” (Ahmad & Tirmidhi ) • Tawakkul (Reliance upon Allah): “If you rely on Allah with due reliance, He would provide for you as He provides for the birds. They set out in the morning with empty stomachs and return in the evening with full stomachs.” ( Ahmad & Ibn Majah) • Du`a (Supplication): Umm Salamah states that Nabi (saw) would make the following dua after the Fajr salaah: “O Allah I ask you for beneficial knowledge, good provision and accepted action.” (Ibn Majah)